


Faith is an Ever-Changing Thing

by Endlessnotebooks



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Infinity War spoilers, Post-Infinity War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-05 23:47:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14629581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Endlessnotebooks/pseuds/Endlessnotebooks
Summary: Three noun prompt: Faith, Battle, CityThor has lost much in his life. He has watched his friends' losses as well. It has jaded him, it has changed his world.But time is the greatest teacher, and with time, there is hope for his people once more. Hope for his people, his brother, and his friends.





	Faith is an Ever-Changing Thing

If there was one thing Thor had learned to have, it was faith in his own abilities and his brother’s inability to die.

But that all changed. That all changed when Thanos strangled the life out of his brother, out of his baby brother, and pushed forward to ignore Thor and try to end the universe. Now, he had to find something else to have faith in. His lightning was unpredictable without something to guide it, and his family and people were dead.

Heimdall had died sending Bruce back to Earth. He had gotten them that much of a warning.

The longer the battle went on, however, the longer he wondered if there was any reason to have faith. He watched friends die, friends mourn. No faith seemed to be helping him, because he kept losing more and more. He was losing things he hadn’t even realized it would hurt to lose.

“We have to keep going. We have to fight him.”

Steven Rogers was an excellent ally and would be a formidable opponent in battle, that was sure. But Thor couldn’t muster up the optimism to believe him. Optimism had gotten him nothing, nowhere, and had cost him more than he had been prepared to pay.

He wished he had never gone to Jotunheim that day, wished he had never led his brother to learn he was adopted. He wished he could turn back time and make it so that everything was fine again. That father was alive, Loki was still his beloved, mischievous brother, and that he had never met these people on Midgard.

But that didn’t stop him from running with his friends, his allies, his comrades into battle that day. Into helping them fight the man who had taken so much from them.

Some of his comrades had lost friends, while others had lost their king. Stark joined them on the battlefield, tears conspicuous in his eyes as he fought, taking down their enemies as though they weren’t even there. The man bore the same pain in his soul and on his shoulders that Thor did, and he could see it in him.

In the end, he got to look out over the capital of Wakanda and see something special. He saw the people that had disappeared come back. He saw people reunite.

He wouldn’t get that, not really. Loki was dead for good this time, he had watched it happen. His brother was as dead as his people.

A hand at his back tore his attention from the skyline.

“It is a lovely day, isn’t it, brother?”

Strange stood behind the two of them, the Infinity Stones hovering behind him in the spell that contained their powers. He was to destroy them or hide them, no consensus had been met yet.  

“You are alive.”

“And very sorry.”

“You did what was right. You tried to stop him. Why would you apologize for that?”

“It is not for that, that I apologize.” Loki looked him earnestly in the eyes. He held Thor’s attention with an unprecedented seriousness. “I should have known he wouldn’t stop. I should have warned you he would become dangerous before he had the chance. Perhaps then, we could have stopped this from happening in the first place.”

Strange walked up. “I did what I could to bring your people back. I couldn’t bring them all back, but we have some of them here. With time, we could bring more of those we lost back.”

“I am happy to have some of Asgard than none at all. I think, once the worst of the damage for everyone has been undone, it would be wise to destroy those stones.”

“Yours is one vote of reason. Some wonder if we shouldn’t find ways to use them to power the Earth or advance medicine. I can see the appeal.”

“They are far too dangerous to be in the hands of mortals.”

“You’re mortal yourself.”

Loki looked from Strange to Thor.

“We are mortal. Hence why Asgard shall not be in the business of keeping powerful and dangerous artifacts any longer. They have been the cause of too much pain and loss. It would be wise to destroy any such tools or weapons in the future.”

* * *

It was after those stones were destroyed, with Thor as a witness, that he found himself able to have faith again. It took a battle of unprecedented proportion and a lot of time following that. There was something about humans, fragile and fleeting as they were, that could restore faith just as easily as it could destroy it.

And so he learned. Faith in himself wasn’t much good – he was limited. Faith in his brother’s inability to die did nothing – he had been murdered in front of him in cold blood once, and now he knew the reality. He would one day lose Loki to their own mortality, however long it took to catch up to them.

But people, life. That was something worth his faith. Because as long as there was land to walk on and food to eat, the people of Midgard – and, as they interacted more, the people of Asgard – were able to make meaning for themselves. They were able to turn even the most dire of situations into something beautiful and memorable.

And as he looked out over his new city, one the people of Wakanda had allowed them to build to house the Asgardians in the hopes of knowledge exchange, he could feel it in his bones and in the lightning that ran through him. That was where his faith should have lain all along. In tenacity and life, not individuals.

It was relieving to know that. And as he ruled Asgard alongside T’Challa’s rule of Wakanda, he knew he would learn more over the centuries to come. Perhaps he would even be a better king, a better leader than his father. Perhaps he could maintain a peaceful existence for Asgardians.

It was a worthy dream, and one his brother now shared fully. His brother, his right hand. His adviser, his friend.


End file.
